Prime Minister Stephen Harper chose an important immigrant business audience in Toronto last night to launch a vigorous counterattack against criticism from ethnic communities of his government's proposed immigration policy changes.

Speaking to an audience of 500 at the Canada-India Foundation gala, Harper pitched the reforms as the only way to "get skilled workers into the country earlier, help families get reunited sooner, provide the Canadian economy with the human capital it needs."

His Conservative government is prepared to go to the polls over the proposals, Harper added.

"Frankly, this is becoming a crisis. And, if we do not fix this, the long-term performance of our economy will be affected."

The proposed changes, which are included in a budget implementation bill, would allow the immigration minister to outline for department officials which skills are to be given priority when assessing immigrants' applications.

Immigration department officials say the changes would enable the government to be more flexible in meeting changing labour demands in Canada.

But critics charge the measures put too much power in the hands of the minister and is a veiled way to limit newcomers.

Last night's audience, including top Indo-Canadian business leaders, gave Harper a largely enthusiastic reception.

Using overhead slides and statistics, Harper mounted an all-out business presentation to sell his proposal to limit the number of immigration applications that Canada accepts for processing.

It is a proposal contained in the budget bill, which, if defeated, would bring down the government. The Liberals have not made clear whether they will take that step.

Harper dismissed charges by political opponents that the government is trying to shut the doors on immigration, saying the measures are "modest" but will reverse the backlog.

"On immigration generally: I want to be clear that this government favours an aggressive immigration policy," he said. "We are bringing in more immigrants than any previous government."

Naresh Raghubeer, national policy director of the Canada-India Foundation, said: "We think the government has struck the right balance with these reforms to clear the backlog and prioritize skilled immigrants to Canada."

Harper said average immigration levels have grown over four decades.

He said since his government was elected, "actual immigration across categories has risen yet again – including ... 56,000 new immigrants from India alone."

But Harper said the numbers mask "the growing crisis in application processing."

By law, Canada must process all applications received, but it can't control the number that come in.

In 1993, there were fewer than 100,000 applications in the backlog. By the year 2000, that had grown to 500,000, he said.

Harper said his government has taken "administrative measures to decrease processing times from between 20 and 40 per cent."

Yet, the backlog has passed 900,000, with wait times for processing averaging six years, giving Canada what he called "the dubious distinction of having the largest immigration backlog in the world."

"Without the government's changes, the backlog will explode to one and a half million in the next five years. Wait times will rise to 10 years," he said.

Immigration department officials have been using similar numbers, but the government's message was overshadowed by suspicion over why the reforms were tucked into the take-it-or-leave-it budget implementation bill.

Having the Prime Minister come deliver the message in person is "an important first step" in getting the message across, said Raghubeer.

Harper cited a lineup of 600,000 applications in the skilled worker category, at a time when labour force growth is projected to cease in the next five years without more immigration.

Harper praised India as an emerging economic power and said he wanted to improve trade between the two countries.

He suggested Canada should ease its dependence on U.S. markets.

"Let's be frank. Canada has been too dependent on our customer to the south for too long."

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